The Sun Still Came Up This Morning

Thousands of very excited fans filled up legendary Lambeau Field for a playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the NY Giants. 

This photograph and following photograph from Internet

Sunday before the game

Few people could have guessed what kind of game they were to watch.  The Packers had a stellar season and home-field advantage.  And when the home field is Lambeau, that is a real advantage.  (Name another  football town in which the people line up in freezing weather to help shovel snow from the seats and aisles preparing for the game.)  Game tickets had sold out and scalpers were making a lot of money.  Everything went well until the teams took to the field.  Dropped balls, fumbles, inadequate defense, an offensive line that couldn't protect the quarterback...all these problems plagued the Packers.  It was a painful experience for the team and for the fans.

A dejected Aaron Rodgers reflects the mood after the game.

And so a season ends.  Bright with promise with so many early wins and brilliant plays.  It's never fun to lose, but it is really awful to play so poorly.  The Packers beat themselves while the Giants observed.

But you know what?  It was a football game.  A football game.  And so we move on.  Where better to go than to the higher mountains.  (OK, Rocky Mountain readers...these are high mountains to us.)  Winter in the mountains brings  fewer visitors, especially to the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP).  Much of the BRP near us is closed to traffic.  For us that is a good thing.  Closed to traffic means OPEN to pedestrians!  If there is snow it means open to cross-country skiing or simply walking in the snow.

One of our favorite winter destinations is the Cold Mountain Overlook.  The parking lot is kept open although the BRP is closed in both directions.  I love the mountains in winter even without snow.  The air seems so crisp and clear.

A mountain view seen while walking along on the road.

 Cold Mountain itself.  (Yes THAT Cold Mountain)

Elevation 6,030 feet

 And looking in the opposite direction

 You just stand and take in the view.

For some reason, the people walking on the BRP are the nicest folks around.  All of them seem to love dogs and all the dogs seem to be friendly.  Strangers stop and share their feelings about the beauty.  No one seems irritated.  No one seems rushed.  And that is good.  It makes me smile.  The mountains will do that to you.

Colors in Spring

Spring unfolds magically in the mountains.  While most people think of mountain color in the fall, fewer people know there is plenty of color as the trees begin to leaf in the spring.  Not only do we have different shades of green, we have reds and yellows as well and the white dogwoods or mountain magnolia mixed in.  All of the photographs except for the last one were take in our neighborhood.

We are especially lucky here in the mountains.  If we drive downtown (about 900 foot change in elevation) we see spring unfolding a week or so earlier than it does in our neighborhood.  And if we drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, we gain several thousand feet where there is less evidence of changing seasons.  In a single day we can see a modest amount of green in our neighborhood,  much more green downtown, and very little green in the higher mountains.  It's almost as if we can follow spring.  And follow it we do...several times a month.

Cold Mountain

When we lived in WI, we saw short spring seasons.  Everything burst forth at once and we went from winter right straight into summer.

As a general rule (OK, as MY general observation) there truly is such a thing as southern hospitality and gentility.  Although I was born in the mountains of North Carolina and spent my youth here, I had forgotten how different the people are.  A prime example of this happened Saturday.

An elderly neighbor died some time ago and her niece and nephew had a  household sale.  I do not often go to such sales, but this one was very close so I walked down.  I wandered through the house, picking up a few things as I went.  The items I picked up were old kitchen items to add to our display over the cabinets.  I found a wire egg basket, a little teapot, a vintage Guardian pot (think non-electric slow cooker), and a small pitcher.  I carried them around with me from room to room.  I didn't find anything else I cared to buy, so I took my treasures to the nephew to pay for them.

Imagine my surprise when a woman yelled in a shrill and grating voice, "Wait a minute!  That's MY teapot.  You stole my teapot!"  I turned around and SHE WAS LOOKING AT ME.  I said, "I beg your pardon...I picked up this teapot from the table over there."  To that she responded, "Well, my pile was on that table and that is my teapot."  The nephew looked quite uncomfortable.  I gave the woman the teapot.  Smiling at her, I did not apologize.  There was a time when I would not have done that.  On principle I would have paid for the teapot and taken it home.  The woman took the teapot from me, scowling all the way.  I thought to myself how awful it must be to let such a small thing bother her so much.  And why she would choose to say I STOLE her teapot, rather than consider I picked it up not knowing she had chosen it.  In fact, I had the teapot in my hands when I had seen her in another room and she hadn't said a word.  And there was nothing about the table to suggest that some of the items were already selected by someone else.

The woman's behavior reminded me of the worst of the rude people in our Wisconsin community.  I had gotten used to more calm and better manners in the years since we returned to NC.  I told one of my friends about the incident.  She replied with a stone face, "She didn't have a southern accent did she?"  No...she did not.

A Very Short Drive on the Parkway

Today brought another gorgeous spring day in the mountains. Forsaking the chores we needed to do, we decided to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a short drive. It was a short drive indeed. We took our usual route up US276 through Pisgah National Forest.

This winter we suffered through heavy snows, two major ice storms and frequent high winds. We lost many trees in our community and on our property. But that did not prepare us for the horrific sights along the highway as we drove up the mountains to the Parkway.

We got on the Parkway at our usual spot near the Cold Mountain Overlook and started to head south. We traveled no further than the end of the overlook when we encountered this sign:



We turned north, knowing that the Parkway was closed beyond Mt. Pisgah because of an unstable slide.

As we drove we saw areas in which every single tree was topped. It was as if a giant had trampled through the mountains with a scythe, cutting off the tops of all the trees and knocking down many others.

I know that when the trees leaf out again the devastation will be hidden from sight. We could drive only three miles between the closed sections. Crews are working hard to clear all the fallen limbs and trees. Hopefully the Parkway will reopen soon. People will drive through and admire the majesty of the mountains. Few of them will know the extent of winter's damage. The mountains will know, and those of us who live here will know. The mountains will recover and stand as they have for so long.

Cold Mountain looked much the same from a distance although I know the trees there suffered mightily.

Every spring we drive up the Parkway at least once a week to see the awakening and greening of these beautiful mountains. I'm not sure I want to go back again this year until the trees are all leafed out to cover up the broken and twisted trees.

The Mountains in May

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again

And we grow old? No, they die too,

Their yearly trick of looking new

Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh

In fullgrown thickness every May.

Last year is dead, they seem to say,

Begin afresh, afresh, afresh."

- Philip Larkin, The Trees

"The air is like a butterfly

With frail blue wings.

The happy earth looks at the sky

And sings."

- Joyce Kilmer

"Sweet May hath come to love us,

Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;

And through the blue heavens above us

The very clouds move on."

- Heinrich Heine

"The world's favorite season is the spring.

All things seem possible in May."

- Edwin Way Teale

So when the earth is alive with gods,

And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod,

And the grass sings in the meadows,

And the flowers smile in the shadows,

Sits my heart at ease,

Hearing the song of the leas,

Singing the songs of the meadows."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what."- John Galsworthy

"Spring is God's way of saying,'One more time!' "

- Robert Orben

The Parkway in Winter

Few people drive the Blue Ridge Parkway during the winter. Thinking the foliage makes the beauty, these folks do not appreciate the beauty of the mountains when the trees are bare.

Except for periods when the Parkway is closed because of snow and ice, we love driving to our favorite places in winter. There is something so refreshing about the crisp air and the relative isolation.

We keep hoping to find the north face of Looking Glass Rock covered with ice, giving it the glistening mirror effect for which it is named. So far we have not been successful.

However, if you look at this shot with the sun shining directly on the dry north face, I think you can imagine how lovely it must be covered with ice.

All along the roadside, trickles of water have become brilliant icicles. This one looks almost like a waterfall.

Cold Mountain does indeed look cold in the winter. But we love its beauty just the same.

It is a shame that more people do not appreciate the beauty of the outdoors in winter. They mistakenly believe that unless the mountains are full of foliage or covered with snow, there's no need to seek them out. I love the bare mountains and the isolation of driving through them in winter.

Color Comes to the Mountains

The leaf color in the mountains is at or near peak at elevations above 4,000 feet. With normal gasoline supplies and beautiful weather, mountain communities eagerly await the arrival of the "leaf lookers," also called "lookers." Tour buses loaded with lookers are everywhere, bringing the much needed tourists to feed our our little town's economy.

Here are some pictures from the Blue Ridge Parkway at the higher elevations. I certainly cannot add words more eloquent than Edna St. Vincent Millay.

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!

Thy mists, that roll and rise!

Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag

And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag

To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!

World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Cleansing Breath

Whenever I need to think and sort out my feelings, the very best thing is to take a drive through the mountains. I stop at a viewing area and just look in all directions. I take deep, cleansing breaths and somehow I feel better. Unfortunately, our little town has no gas today, so such a drive would not be reasonable and would be wasteful. So I take a walk in the woods and look at recent pictures of the mountains.

These are from a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mount Pisgah.

A blanket of fog lies in the valley.

A pair of dead trees with Funnel Top Mountain in the background.

Another valley filled with clouds.

Cold Mountain, the top obscured by clouds.

-----So why are we still without gasoline at this late date? Simply put, we are far away from the pipelines. The gas is delivered to metropolitan areas with easy delivery and the mountain areas are last in line. It costs more and is more difficult to bring the gasoline up the mountains. Panic among the drivers contributes to the problem as people want to "top off" at any time they find gasoline. This drains the pumps more quickly and the cycle continues.

-----Severe shortages exist in Asheville as well and police are often called to manage the crowds whenever a service station gets a gas delivery. Many fights have erupted among frustrated customers. Some people cannot get enough gas to drive to work, especially home health workers or others who must drive from place to place. Charitable groups are having fewer volunteers, and the meals-on-wheels programs cannot find enough drivers.

-----So while I miss my drives through the mountains, I am in so much better shape than many others. We have a pantry and freezer full of food. We have plenty to do in our own neighborhood. And we have great neighbors. We notify one another if we have to drive to town and make a list of items another neighbor might need. And, at least in our little town, no one is getting physical at the gas pumps.

A Short Drive on the Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic highway running the 469 miles from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia (Helen takes you there often) to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. With few exceptions in limited areas, there are no commercial vehicles and the maximum speed limit is 35 miles/hour.

Almost every week, my husband and I drive a small section of the Parkway. Our destination is the Pisgah Inn where we have a delicious breakfast and then head back down the mountains. The Inn overlooks a large gorge and we often see birds flying below us. The scenery is outstanding and no matter how often we make the trip, we find new joy in looking at the mountains. We climb several thousand feet in elevation on the way to the Inn, and we love to see the differences in the trees and flowers, especially in the Spring and Fall.

The Parkway has frequent turn outs and scenic viewing areas. However, it is perfectly acceptable to pull one's car off anywhere so long as the car is completely off the road. Here are some scenes from our most recent visit:

The mountain in the center of this picture (with the rock face) is Looking Glass Mountain, located in Pisgah National Forest.

The clouds make lovely shadows on the sides of the mountains.

The pointy mountain in the center of the photograph is Funnel Top.

The top of Cold Mountain.

What, you may ask is on the other side of the car?

Rocky banks, rhododendron, lovely wildflowers and an occasional black bear.

We are truly blessed to have this beauty around us. And doubly blessed to have the time to take advantage of it.

There is a Cold Mountain

Many of you may have read Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, a novel about a Civil War soldier who deserts the military and walks for months to get home to Cold Mountain. There really is a Cold Mountain in Western North Carolina and it is the Cold Mountain to which Frazier's book refers.

Cold Mountain lies in Haywood County, but these pictures were taken in Transylvania County from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Cold Mountain is well over a mile high and is a lovely sight to behold in all seasons.

Taken today (July 7, 2008)

If you did not read the book, but saw the movie, I would strongly recommend that you do read the book. I personally found the movie to be superficial and did not enjoy it much. But I did enjoy the book, the style of which has been compared to Homer's Odyssey, (which I believe is something of a stretch). It's a good read, but it certainly isn't the Odyssey.